Capital Bites: New Fatburger, BLCU Muslim Closed, Bibigo, Hollys Coffee, Take Five

News for you this week: a new Fatburger location near Dawanglu, the BLCU Muslim restaurant under construction, and plenty of new openings around town, including coffee, bombastic new bars and world-class bibimbap.

We are sad to note that the BLCU Muslim Restaurant is surrounded by scaffolding and seems closed for another spell. When this happened a couple years ago, I almost cried, but then they reopened in a bigger, cleaner space at the new canteen building on campus. What's going to happen this time? We'll keep you posted. If anyone knows anything, let us know.

In better news, Fatburger is getting ready to open a new location, at Gemdale Plaza next to the Dawanglu subway stop. The random worker we called up at their Guomao location said he thinks it's opening in September. We'll verify as soon as you can say "clogged arteries." (Well, not really, because we'll actually have to wait for them to open.)

Pentahotel over at Chongwenmen is still flying a little under the radar since their rebranding in March, but we visited last week and found it to fill a huge gap in the Beijing hotel landscape. It's like if you mashed up the YMCA, a college dorm and a few swanky New York sidewalk cafes and then breaded and fried them. Food and rooms are really well-priced – we're talking a noodle bar serving a great laksa at RMB 25 and RMB 500 a night starting price. Plus, they have a game room open to guests at all time with a pool table, flat screen TV and Nintendo Wii. P.S. That's their burger we tried up there.

Take Five Restaurant & Bar at World City seems open now. A sign tells us they have the best pizza in China. But there's still no sign of Eric Clapton. Clearly, this place has no qualms about making fantastic claims to attract customers.

Continuing the trend of Korean coffee chains, Hollys Coffee has just opened in Chaowai Soho. They serve Hollyccinos, waffles and croque monsieurs among other things, as detailed by the plastic menu items they've got displayed on their shelf. The doors are open now, but they've told us they're officially opening on Aug 28. We'll have more for you once we've tried their stuff.

Speaking of Korean brands, the international bibimbap chain Bibigo has opened at the Indigo mall. That's their kimchi fried rice up above. Very pricey (RMB 58), but very fresh and tasty, so similar to Obentos - those who think it's worth it will think so, and those who don't, won't. We'll have a full review for you in our September issue.

Temple Restaurant Beijing is now offering private dining rooms at the restaurant's beautiful, historic site. If you're planning a special occasion and prepared to really splash out, talk to them about enjoying it in seclusion.

Sadly, there have been some misunderstandings and we've found out the hutong taco bar we mentioned in a previous edition of Capital Bites won't be opening to the public after all. They'll stay a private kitchen for now, so we apologize for any false hopes we may have raised. If you can taste the pain of good tacos slipping away from you, don't worry, we're right there with you.

Eat well.

Photos: Marilyn Mai, Lilly Chow